Enzyme processing of soybeans into intact oil bodies, protein bodies, and hydrolyzed carbohydrates

Abstract

A method of enzyme-based processing of plant-based materials includes steps of providing a bulk amount of a plant-based material having a substantial amount of the cell walls in a physically-intact condition; providing an enzyme broth having an enzyme capable of breaking down the cell walls in the physically-intact condition; combining the bulk amount of the plant-based material with the enzyme broth; allowing the enzyme capable of breaking down the cell walls in the physically-intact condition to break down at least a portion of the cell walls in the physically-intact condition to thereby produce intact oil bodies, hydrolyzed carbohydrates, and intact protein bodies; collecting a first product including the intact oil bodies; collecting a second product including the hydrolyzed carbohydrates; and collecting a third product including the intact protein bodies.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application claims the benefit of U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No. 62 / 779,843, filed Dec. 14, 2018, which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002]The present invention is directed to methods of enzyme-based processing for separating and collecting the major components of plant-based materials (e.g. soybeans) as intact oil bodies, intact protein bodies, and hydrolyzed carbohydrates.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]When processing plant-based materials, such as soybeans, it is desirable to recover as much nutritional and industrial value from the materials. However, as uses of these materials has evolved in different parts of the world, different processes have been developed, which tend to target producing particular products. As such, these diverse processes tend to leave the non-targeted components as widely different byproduct materials. Since the byproduct materials are quite dif...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The present invention provides a method for processing plant-based materials using enzymes to break down cell walls and produce oil bodies, carbohydrates, and protein bodies. The method involves combining a bulk amount of plant-based material with an enzyme broth containing the enzyme and allowing it to break down the cell walls. The resulting product stream includes intact oil bodies, hydrolyzed carbohydrates, and intact protein bodies. This method allows for efficient and effective processing of plant-based materials for various applications.

Problems solved by technology

Developing and optimizing these diverse and narrowly targeted methods can be difficult and expensive, and some of these byproduct materials are simply disposed as waste.

Moreover, since the resulting products from these diverse methods will differ, there can be difficulty in establishing an end use.

Hexane is derived from non-renewable petroleum sources and is highly flammable and explosive, posing hazards to personnel and properties.

Moreover, the volatile hexane can react with nitrogen oxide to form ozone, causing health hazards for the surrounding community.

In addition to hexane extraction, other utilized pretreatment steps tend to destroy the cell structures of the plant-based materials.

Further, these conventional pretreatment steps tend to make it difficult to separate protein from the indigestible carbohydrate in the plant meal after oil extraction.

This can significantly decrease the value of collected protein and carbohydrate.

However, these methods tend to overly mix the various desired products in a way that does not allow maximal separation and recovery of the various product components.

Moreover, these methods do not allow for the collection of intact oil bodies and protein bodies.

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